Utterly Fascinating and Not Pointless

[Stephen]

Amazing:
NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical

NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.

Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.

"The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it."

This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express.

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth. Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells.

Phosphorus is a central component of the energy-carrying molecule in all cells (adenosine triphosphate) and also the phospholipids that form all cell membranes. Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, is poisonous for most life on Earth. Arsenic disrupts metabolic pathways because chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate.

"We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we've found is a microbe doing something new -- building parts of itself out of arsenic," said Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the research team's lead scientist. "If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?"

The newly discovered microbe, strain GFAJ-1, is a member of a common group of bacteria, the Gammaproteobacteria. In the laboratory, the researchers successfully grew microbes from the lake on a diet that was very lean on phosphorus, but included generous helpings of arsenic. When researchers removed the phosphorus and replaced it with arsenic the microbes continued to grow. Subsequent analyses indicated that the arsenic was being used to produce the building blocks of new GFAJ-1 cells.

The key issue the researchers investigated was when the microbe was grown on arsenic did the arsenic actually became incorporated into the organisms' vital biochemical machinery, such as DNA, proteins and the cell membranes. A variety of sophisticated laboratory techniques was used to determine where the arsenic was incorporated.

The team chose to explore Mono Lake because of its unusual chemistry, especially its high salinity, high alkalinity, and high levels of arsenic. This chemistry is in part a result of Mono Lake's isolation from its sources of fresh water for 50 years.

The results of this study will inform ongoing research in many areas, including the study of Earth's evolution, organic chemistry, biogeochemical cycles, disease mitigation and Earth system research. These findings also will open up new frontiers in microbiology and other areas of research.

"The idea of alternative biochemistries for life is common in science fiction," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Until now a life form using arsenic as a building block was only theoretical, but now we know such life exists in Mono Lake."

The research team included scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Penn., and the Stanford Synchroton Radiation Lightsource in Menlo Park, Calif.

NASA's Astrobiology Program in Washington contributed funding for the research through its Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. NASA's Astrobiology Program supports research into the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life on Earth.

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[Darwin]

more proof that "men in black" is a documentary!

 

[mesha]

So, I am going to brand myself (nerd), but I think this is FREAKING AWESOME!!!! I was teaching my students about extremophiles today. I will have to add strain GFAJ-1 to my list of weird life. I can't believe people still say there isn't life outside our planet.

If you want another cool one look up tardigrades better know as water bears. They have reproduced on the wing of a space ship. Talk about the ultimate one up guy.

Sir Edmond Hillary, "So, I climbed everest".
Guy Laliberté, "oh, yeah I paid to go to space".
Neil Armstrong, "Big deal I walked on the moon".
Tardigrade, "uhmm I made babies on the wing of a spaceship".

 

[I Lean]

:greg:

 

[SAMI]

Tardigrade, "uhmm I made babies on the wing of a spaceship".

That's cooler than a walking pickle

 

[mesha]

^^^ nice they don't look tough, but they are the ultimate survivors.

 

[SAMI]

I find this stuff to be very interesting, though I don't fully understand much of it.. Just the idea that something happened that is blowing science away as we know it, that is awesome. Life from arsenic is cool.. Little known fact, the first garage band that I started way back in 96-97ish, was named 'Arsenic'.

 

[mesha]

That's cooler than a walking pickle

holy crud that made my laugh so hard. I forgot about that. I am sitting at parent teachers conference waiting for a parent to walk in and burst out laughing. A few people stuck their head in to see what was going on.

 

[mesha]

I find this stuff to be very interesting, though I don't fully understand much of it.. Just the idea that something happened that is blowing science away as we know it, that is awesome. Life from arsenic is cool.. Little known fact, the first garage band that I started way back in 96-97ish, was named 'Arsenic'.

come to my lesson of monday it will blow your mind

 

[I Lean]

come to my lesson of monday it will blow your mind

What do you teach of Monday? I've always wanted to learn about Monday.

 

[SAMI]

Creation of light?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I thought it was a dancing pickle? I've been saying it on occassion lol

 

[mesha]

What do you teach of Monday? I've always wanted to learn about Monday.

I am actually teaching about a monday in Turkey in the town of OF. I am surprised you have never heard of it. OF is a town and district of Trabzon Province in the Black Sea region of.

As far as monday is concerned it is the day following Sunday, so they thought moon (Lunae) would be fitting to follow. then they named the rest of the days after gods or something. Woden even got a day, but no one liked him so he got the middle.

I will also be talking about extremophiles. endoliths, halophiles, acidophiles, D. radiodurans, methane ice worms, hydrothermal vent colonies, hyperthermophiles, oligotrophs, xerophiles, etc.

Creation of light?

We already covered creation of light, well, 2 of the three ways it is created. Who even talks about synchrotron emission these days. Am I right?! High fives all around.

I thought it was a dancing pickle? I've been saying it on occassion lol

walking pickle...dancing pickle sounds .

 

[I Lean]

I am actually teaching about a monday in Turkey in the town of OF. I am surprised you have never heard of it. OF is a town and district of Trabzon Province in the Black Sea region of.

As far as monday is concerned it is the day following Sunday, so they thought moon (Lunae) would be fitting to follow. then they named the rest of the days after gods or something. Woden even got a day, but no one liked him so he got the middle.

I will also be talking about extremophiles. endoliths, halophiles, acidophiles, D. radiodurans, methane ice worms, hydrothermal vent colonies, hyperthermophiles, oligotrophs, xerophiles, etc.



We already covered creation of light, well, 2 of the three ways it is created. Who even talks about synchrotron emission these days. Am I right?! High fives all around.



walking pickle...dancing pickle sounds .

.